The Imperative Reasons for Silence
by SwingOnAStar
Summary: Harry decides one day that it is imperative to teach Hermione the difference between silence and The Silence. And, in order to accomplish this, he does something no one would expect. HHr


**-Silence-**

**Disclaimer: **I do not own any of these characters although I do wish with all my might that I could be reincarnated to become J.K. Rowling because then I would be filthy rich and Harry would be mine – ALL MINE!

**Summary: **Harry decides one day that it is imperative to teach Hermione the different between silence and _The _Silence. And, in order to accomplish this, he does something no one would expect.

**A/N: **OK, I admit that this story is completely pointless and there is nothing to it whatsoever but I just wrote it one day because it just came to me. So, here you go, enjoy and review!

Harry and Hermione were sitting in their usual spot – in the two chairs closest to the fire while Ron played wizard's chess with Dean and Seamus. Or maybe just Dean or maybe just Seamus, but usually, Dean and Seamus put their heads and strategies together when they played Ron because Ron was so good that more than one head was most likely necessary.

Anyway, they sat like this every day – Harry and Hermione, that is. Shoulder to shoulder, leaning on each other and sitting in a friendly silence.

Key word there: friendly.

The silence was a bit _too_ friendly for Harry. He didn't know why but it seemed like there could be a different kind of silence, a silence unlike any other silence – a silence so very unlike any other silences that it would be The Silence: The King of All Silences and all the other silences would bow down to _The_ Silence and –

OK, Harry told himself, there's only one kind of silence. Silence is when nobody says anything and it's completely quiet… and… nobody says anything…

Silence is – well, silence.

There is only one type of silence.

The only problem was, Harry could not convince himself that there was only one type of silence, he was sure that there was something missing from this Harry-Hermione-friendly-silence thing. Hewas _definitely_ sure that there was something wrong with this silence and he wanted to make it right.

He wanted to make it right, right now.

"Hermione?" asked Harry tentatively.

"Hmm?" she asked, she was always very thoughtful while she sat with Harry although Harry never knew exactly what she was thinking about unless… Unless… of course! Maybe she had been thinking about The Silence just like Harry.

But no, Harry thought, Hermione probably had that all figured out like everything else.

"Do you like The Silence?" he asked, pronouncing the words "The Silence" as if they were holy and important.

"What do you mean?"

So maybe she didn't know about The Silence. Harry internally cackled – he knew something Hermione didn't! Cackle, cackle, cackle…

"What are you smirking about Harry?" Hermione asked curiously as she turned to face Harry.

"Oh, nothing," said Harry. Cackle, cackle…

"You have an evil look about you, are you thinking up another plan to get one of us killed –"

"Or worst, expelled," said Harry completing Hermione's thought.

"How did you…?"

"Hermione, you said that in first year, one would think you'd have come up with a better put-down line than that one by seventh year."

Hermione stared at him blankly. She surely had not expected him to remember something she had said so long ago. This surprised her because he didn't even have the mental capacity to memorize the difference between a Sleeping Potion and a Sleeping Brew as they were two very different things. A Sleeping Potion was a very weak potion that only put the potion-taker to sleep for a mere two hours while the Sleeping Brew was very strong and if made with too much mandrake root, could cause the potion-taker to be asleep forever. This, in turn would –

"Hermione?"

"Huh? What – oh, hello Harry," said Hermione coming out of her reverie on sleeping potions and brews.

"I have a question."

"Alright," said Hermione and she waited for Harry's question.

And she waited, and waited and waited. Harry seemed to be in deep thought, she really hadn't ever seen him in such deep thought before and it was beginning to scare her.

"Harry, if I knew that this question was going to be so difficult for you to ask, I wouldn't have asked you to tell me," she said trying to bring Harry back down to Earth.

"Yeah… well, my question… Yes, my question. Have you ever noticed that when we sit together, there's a Silence?"

"Well, of course there's a silence, Harry. Silence is when nobody says anything and it's completely quiet… and… nobody says anything… Silence is – well, silence," said Hermione matter-of-factly.

There was something slightly, maybe – _vaguely_ – familiar about Hermione's definition of silence. But, Harry noticed, she wasn't talking about _The Silence_, but only silence.

"No – I mean, _The_ Silence," said Harry as if what he was saying made perfect sense. And it did, of course, to him but it didn't, really, to anyone else.

Hermione raised her eyebrows and looked at Harry expecting further explanation for "_the _silence" with special importance added to the "the" for what, she did not know.

When Harry did not explain himself she asked, "What is 'the silence'?"

Harry shook his head, "You're not saying it right, it's '_The_ Silence', not 'the silence'."

Hermione heard no different between the two pronunciations of the word silence but she tried to find a difference between them but – alas, there was none.

"Harry, you're not making any sense."

Hermione didn't understand what he was talking about, Harry thought gleefully and smiled to himself. He was a genius: he could discern between the silence and _The_ Silence. Cackle, cackle…

"Harry, stop doing that!" said Hermione, Harry had resumed his evil-scheming-smirk face and was rubbing his hands together.

After happily enjoying his genius moment, Harry decided that he would enjoy it even more.

"According to my calculations, there is a peculiar difference between the silence and _The_ Silence so, therefore, _The _Silence must be much more important than the other because of the extra annunciation on the 'the' and because when written, it would, of course, have a capital letter at the beginning."

Hermione, dazed at the stupidity and insanity of what Harry was staying, stared at him stupidly until Harry suddenly broke out in laughter. He was laughing so hard that he clutched his stomach which then led him to bend over and fall of his chair and continue, then, to roll around on the floor – still laughing.

Hermione watched this most spectacular event and a smile began to tug at her lips until she began laughing too. It started out as a giggle but then her laugh grew into a full laugh as Harry's laugh was extremely contagious. She, too, rolled off her chair and landed in a somewhat odd position next to Harry on the floor and they laughed together.

Ron, Dean and Seamus who had been _trying_ to concentrate on their chess game came over to tell Harry and Hermione off but, upon seeing them rolling around on the floor in a heap laughing their heads off, they also caught the laughter disease. Unlike Harry and Hermione, they weren't laughing with them, they were laughing _at_ them.

But Harry and Hermione didn't care – when you're laughing _that_ hard, you don't usually tend to care about anything at all whatsoever.

"What's so funny?" asked Ron in between bouts of laughter.

"It's… he… it's his f-fault!" said Hermione pointing an accusing finger at  
Harry who was lying next to her. She was having some difficulty forming sentences and stringing words together which was saying something as this usually came naturally to her.

Harry took a few deep breaths and attempted to explain himself, "I know something Hermione doesn't!" he said and then lapsed into another bout of laughter and could talk freely no more.

Ron, Dean and Seamus silenced. It was a very rare occasion to know something that Hermione didn't and when it came along, the smarter one always needs to be congratulated.

"Great job, mate!" said Seamus, but Harry, unfortunately, didn't hear him as he was still laughing; the rolling had ceased as his sides had began to hurt.

Hermione stopped laughing, "Hey! What do you know that I don't?"

Harry sat up and prepared himself to enjoy yet another genius moment. This moment would be even better, thought, because he now had an audience.

"You can't tell the difference between the silence and _The_ Silence," repeated Harry.

Hermione opened her mouth in response, but then closed it.

"Hermione – speechless?" said Dean faking a gasp. Seamus chuckled but Ron was looking at Harry.

"There's no difference, mate," he said.

"Thank you, Ron," said Hermione approvingly.

"Oh, but you're wrong!" said Harry standing, "There _is _a difference. Here, I'll prove it."

He walked over next to Hermione.

"Now, nobody say anything and listen to the silence."

Nobody said anything and it was completely silent because everyone else in the common room had also stopped talking to watch.

"That was the silence but not _The _Silence. Now, I bet I could make The Silence if I did something really spontaneous, something really unexpected like…"

Harry stood still for a moment, which was actually something very unexpected because he was in such a jumpy mood.

"Now what could Harry possibly do that's unexpected?" asked Dean.

"Yeah, really, he _is _the Boy-Who-Lived for crying out loud," said Seamus jokingly.

"Oh, shush, I'll think of something…" said Harry and returned to his deep thinking.

He needed to think of something funny or unusual that he'd never done before. He could throw a couch pillow at Ron… no, he did that all the time. Or… he could jinx someone (he usually wouldn't do that as it was very mean)… no… or he could do something that absolutely nobody would suspect.

He could kiss Hermione.

Now _that _would surprise everyone!

Harry pulled Hermione to her feet and looked into his eyes with his evil-scheme-smirk expression on again. Hermione opened her mouth to as him what he was doing but before she could say anything – he planted his lips firmly on hers.

He'd originally planned to pull away right after the initial kiss but he discovered that he absolutely did _not _want this kiss to stop.

Hermione was at first surprised to have Harry kissing her but it was nonetheless a bit enjoyable.

OK, very enjoyable… extremely enjoyable – very, very pleasant.

Harry pulled Hermione closer to him and Hermione leaned into Harry's chest playing with his hair while Harry held her close. They kissed for a long while and during that while they became completely oblivious that they were being stared at be none other that more than half the Gryffindor house.

And, most especially, they were experiencing the silence.

No – sorry – _The _Silence.

When they pulled apart and stared affectionately into one another eyes, Harry forgot about proving the difference between silence and Silence. All that mattered was that he would be able to kiss someone like _that_ again. But Ron – being Ron – rudely interrupted the moment.

"What that _bloody_ hell was that all about!"


End file.
